This is the place for free live concerts and rare audio/video recordings. All posts are NOT officially released material. Nothing is for sale and everything is for free downloading & sharing only.
My favorites are Led Zeppelin, Journey, and Feist. But you will find so much more too as this blog progresses because I love music!
This site will primarily be a FLAC audio and DVD sharing site with a few rare exceptions.
Thank you, and enjoy the show...
Bootradr

Monday, September 14, 2015

Robert Plant: 2002-09-15 Austin, TX (FLAC_SB_1 CD)

Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of Robert Plant's appearance on the program Austin City Limits in 2002. I like this recording because of the songs in it and Plant's vocals as well. He still was sounding like he could have played Led Zeppelin music and it wasn't like the music he puts out today that completely changes the whole song as well as the way he sings it.

I like the song "Darkness, Darkness" and remember when I first heard him playing this one. This isn't his best version of the song but it still sounds great in this excellent recording.

This recording claimed to be a soundboard of the show and it may be. But I have to wonder if it is a video rip too since most sources of this performance are just that. I believe I have this performance on DVD myself but I haven't located it if I do. This show was just a year after my eye surgeries and I was still barely able to see. I wasn't doing any music trading during this time and for about three years was unable to. So I may not have this video at all.

The waveform had no audio clipping and the artwork I found for this show indicates this was a boot label's release. I know this artwork is the exact same source do to the song titles and their naming as well as the extra interview track at the end with Plant and his band members.

There really isn't a lot to say about this show. I like hearing Plant doing "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" again here. And while the songs do not sound like Led Zeppelin playing, they are played in the Led Zeppelin style and not completely reorganized to sound like whatever he is making today.

As much as I love Plant's voice, I'm not a big fan of his music in the last few years. He made it clear he wasn't interested in doing Led Zeppelin style music anymore and even if he were interested in doing it, he doesn't have the capability to do it today. He waited way too long to go back now. I don't blame him one bit for doing what he likes and wants to do. I think he should be doing what makes him happy musically. It just doesn't make me happy musically so I seldom collect or even check out the music he is doing live nowadays anymore.

There are some of the Middle Eastern influences in this concert musically speaking. Just like in the 1995/96 and 1998 Page and Pant shows, Robert Plant made sure these North African and Middle Eastern sounds were in the music they played. The big difference here is there is no Jimmy Page to make the Led Zeppelin songs sound as good as they could.

Plant mentions how he delved into the vinyl era of music and put together some songs he liked and redid them. He's been doing this for the last 15 years or so on his new releases. Some are better than others. But this is a good mix of a few eras of Plant's musical interest. There is no 1980's era songs in this recording but he does go back to around 1993 and then on up through the current time frame of 2002 as well as put in a few Led Zeppelin tracks.

I sort of consider this 2002 time period to be Plant's jumping off point where he makes his move towards what he's doing nowadays. He still had a few years of some great new songs and then the 2007 Led Zeppelin final reunion in him. But at the age he is today, I'm pretty sure he's on the track he'll remain on and the songs will remain the same in what he is doing nowadays.

Robert Plant talks about what I am referring to in the last track interview and about his different styles and the typecasting that goes on with his voice and what people expect and what he wants to do. And I can understand his interest in changing things up and not singing the same song for 50 years. But I also know that I like the past, the music more specifically from it, and I am looking at things from my perspective. I'm sure there are many people who don't even know who Led Zeppelin is (well, not many but a few) from today's generation that like his newer music. But I also feel if he had never been with Led Zeppelin that he wouldn't be selling albums at all today. So you can't just shun your past that made you popular and I'm not saying at all that he has. But he needs to remember that too because there are many more Led Zeppelin fans than modern day Robert Plant and the (inset a newer band rendition name...too many to add) fans. So be careful when you slam Led Zeppelin music and those days in interviews Robert! It's still your bread and butter.

"Going To California" has a really nice Led Zeppelin sound to it in the way he sings the lyrics. And so does "Hey, Hey What Can I Do" too. But my favorite from this performance is "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You".

Just as a side note here, 27 years ago today (1988-09-14), Jimmy Page played in Austin at the Frank Erwin Center. I believe I uploaded "sean_the_bootleggers" excellent recording of that show here in the past too.I hope you enjoy the show...Bootradr

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